Judith Longest Bethea was born in New Orleans on October 4, 1945 and grew up in Starkville, Mississippi, where her family moved in 1947. She attended Millsaps College and received a degree in English Education in 1969 from Louisiana State University at New Orleans and an MA in English from the University of New Orleans, in 1981. She was married to Dr. William Bethea in 1983. She taught English in New Orleans Public schools until her retirement in 1990. She died on March 30, 2009.

In the late 1980's, after she and her husband bought an old house on Bordeaux Street, she became interested in property research and compiled a detailed history of her own home. This project developed into a second career as a house historian. Until her death in 2009, Ms. Bethea wrote several hundred histories for individual property owners, real estate agents and for organizations such as the Preservation Resource Center. She also contributed to a number of television programs and scholarly publications and conducted classes in property research methods.

The papers, for the most part, consist of Ms. Bethea's files on individual properties she researched. In some cases, she was commissioned to research a series of addresses, rather than a single property. She also conducted research into property ownership of several of the early New Orleans faubourgs (Bloomingdale, Bouligny, Burtheville, Greenville, Hurstville), as well as research into the ancestry of Norbert Rilleux and Louis A. Martinet (the Martinet research originated with a commission to locate Martinet's gravesite). Also included are notes, outlines, and handouts used in classes or talks on conducting property research, miscellaneous genealogical notes, and secondary material gathered for use in her research.

The files on individual or multiple properties typically include Ms. Bethea's rough research notes and photocopied material from newspapers, notarial documents, probate records, tax assessment records, Sanborn Fire Insurance maps, etc. A chain of title is often included, along with drafts of Ms. Bethea's report. A copy of the final report is usually (but not always) included in the file.

Also included is a copy of Winston De Ville's The 1795 Chimney-Tax of New Orleans: A Guide to the Census of Proprietors and Residents of the Vieux Carre (1994), annotated by Ms. Bethea to indicate the addresses of many of the individuals included in the guide.

The files are arranged alphabetically, as labeled by Ms. Bethea.

Newspaper clippings from local newspapers were not retained. Original manilla file folders were photocopied, if Ms. Bethea included notes (other than a record of times spent on the project) on the folder itself.

Included among the papers were a number of folders, labeled by square number, containing nothing more than copies from The Historic New Orleans Collection's Vieux Carre Survey. Since the survey is now online (http://www.hnoc.org/vcs), these copies were not retained unless the folder also contained reports or notes written by Ms. Bethea.

In addition to the paper files, Ms. Bethea also supplied a cd containing Microsoft Word files of the finished report for many of her projects. A few of the files on the CD are preliminary reports. These files were printed and inserted into the appropriate file folder. If no file folder for an address or project existed, one was created by the processor.

Box 1

Annunciation St., 4003; Constantinople St., 602
Annunciation St., 5001
Anthony St., N., 239-241
Arabella St., 1322-1324
Atlantic St., 719
Audubon Blvd.
Audubon Blvd., 4
Audubon Blvd., 7
Audubon Pl., 12
Avart Plantation
Baronne St., 346
Baronne St., 521-547
Bartholomew St., 1001-1003
Bienville St., 510-522
Blanc Pl., 2
Bloomingdale
Bordeaux St., 1629
Bordeaux St., 1633 (Bethea Residence)

Box 2

Bouligny
Bourbon St., 831; St. Philip St., 516
Bourbon St., 914
Bourbon St., 1440 (Dolliole-Mason House)
Broadway Ave., 515
Broadway Ave., 579
Brule, Charlot -- Documents relating to the estate of
Burgundy St., 629
Burgundy St., 1009
Burtheville
Burtheville, Square 23

Box 3

Calhoun St., 1335
Camp St., 216-220
Camp St., 217-221
Camp St., 2330
Camp St., 2333
Camp St., 2703
Camp St., 5249 (Peters-Abramson House)
Canal Blvd., 4506
Canal St., 3620
Canal St., 4016
Canal St., 400 block (Square 133)
Carondelet St., 3530
Carondelet St., 3539-3541
Carondelet St., 4319 (Square 436)
Carondelet St., 4724
Carondelet St., 4803; Bordeaux St., 1706
Carrollton Ave., 2000
Carrollton, City of (Square 277)
Chartres St., 2900-2920 (National Rice Mill; Squares 20-21)
Chartres St., 3317 (Original site of Touro Almshouse)
Chartres St., 3933 (Lombard Plantation)

Box 4

Chestnut St., 2333
Chestnut St., 2419
Chestnut St., 2532
Chestnut St., 3125
City Park Ave., 1172
Coliseum St., 2325
Coliseum St., 2425
Coliseum St., 2604
Coliseum St., 2627
Coliseum St., 2708
Coliseum St., 3222
Coliseum St., 6014
Commercial Alley
Constance St., 1365
Constantinople St., 1636
Crawford, Josephine and Biloxi Research
Dauphine St., 4804
Decatur St., 1232
DeSoto St., 3027
Dorgenois St., N., 917
Douglass St., 5432
Dublin St., 2000
Dumaine St., 2654

Box 5

Eighth St., 1525
Eighth St., 1531
Eleonore St., 343
Elmira St., 501; Eliza St., 833
Elysian Fields, 501
Esplanade Ave., 544 (Tiblier-Cazanave-Cummings House)
Esplanade Ave., 2612
First St., 1134
First St., 1236
First St., 1239
First St., 1304
First St., 1312
First St., 1322
First St., 1323 (Howard House)
First St., 1331
First St., 1407
First St., 1420
First St., 1428
First St., 1432
Fitzner, William (Architect)
Foucher St., 724
Foucher St., 1721
Fourth St., 1213
Fourth St., 1226
Frenchmen St., 601; Chartres St., 2103
Frenchmen St., 825
Friburg

Box 6

General Pershing St., 2036
General Taylor St., 625
Genois St., 129
Gentilly Blvd; Gentilly Terrace
Governor Nicholls St., 1227
Governor Nicholls St., 2523
Gravier St., 523
Green St., 8119
Greenville
Hampson St., 7535 (Pezold-Bethea House)
Hampson St., 7705
Henry Clay Ave., 1500 (Judge John Howard Ferguson)
Hillary St., 904

Box 7

House History -- How to Conduct Research
Howard Ave., 310
Hurstville
In the Beginning: Faubourg St. Mary
Jackson Ave., 1236 (Sweet-Udall House)
Jackson Ave., 1302
Jackson Ave., 1410
Jackson Ave., 1422
Jackson Ave., 1429
Jackson Ave., 1435 (Thorn-Morgan House)
Jackson Ave., 1516 (St. Mary's Assumption Chapel)
Jefferson Ave., 930-932
Jefferson Ave., 1216
Lafayette Brewery
Laurel St., 4117-4119
Lesseps St., 601
Lesseps St., 608, 615, 619
Lopez St., N., 1219
Louisa St., 821
Lowerline St., 308
Loyola St., 6320

Box 8

Magazine St., 1378-1380
Magazine St., 1441
Magazine St., 2233
Magazine St., 6101
Maple St., 7818
Marais St., 1225-1227
Marais St., 1231
Marengo St., 926-928
Marguerite Plantation, La (Lafource Parish)
Melpomene St., 926-928
Melpomene St., 1431
Melpomene St., 1433
Milan St., 1502-1506
Milan St., 1634-1636
Millaudon St., 376
Miro St., N., 1300
Miscellaneous Genealogical Material
Moss St., 1035
Moss St., 1437
Napoleon Ave., 1303
Napoleon Ave., 1305
Nashville Ave., 435
Nashville Ave., 510
Nashville Ave., 905
New Orleans Museum of Art French Quarter Art Tour

Box 9

Octavia St., 1431
Oliver St., 219
Operation Comeback (Preservation Resource Center)
Orleans Ave., 1029 (Durac-Roger House)
Orleans Club
Orleans St., 1031
Palmer Ave., 1711
Panola St., 8142
Patterson St., 631
Pauger St., 1452
Perrier St., 4416
Peters St., S., 900
Philip St., 923
Philip St., 1238
Philip St., 1430
Pierce St., S., 118-120 (Dominick O'Malley House)
Pierce St., S., 415 (Siren-Hutchinson House)
Pirate's Alley, 624 (Faulkner House)
Pitt St., 5323 (Gilbert Academy)

Box 10

Preservation Resource Center -- Class Notes
Preservation Resource Center -- Holiday Home Tours
Prytania St., 1704
Prytania St., 1780
Prytania St., 2322
Prytania St., 2343
Prytania St., 2507
Prytania St., 2911
Prytania St., 3020
Prytania St., 3102
Prytania St., 3203
Rampart St., N., 528
Rampart St., N., 1000-1006/St. Philip, 1033-1035
Saint Andrew St., 1525

Box 11

Saint Charles Ave., 316-318, 350
Saint Charles Ave., 320-326
Saint Charles Ave., 330
Saint Charles Ave., 800-808-810 (Julia Row)
Saint Charles Ave., 2220 (House of Broel)
Saint Charles Ave., 2228
Saint Charles Ave., 2265
Saint Charles Ave., 2503
Saint Charles Ave., 2524 (Marigny-Smith-Rice House)
Saint Charles Ave., 2525 (Koch House)
Saint Charles Ave., 4301
Saint Charles Ave., 4605
Saint Charles Ave., 4717 (William Perry Brown House)
Saint Charles Ave., 4803
Saint Charles Ave., 5005 (Orleans Club)
Saint Charles Ave., 6126
Saint Charles Ave., 7004 (Parkview Guest House)
Saint Charles Ave., 7133
Saint Charles Ave., 7725-7727

Box 12

Saint Louis St., 827
Saint Louis St., 931
Saint Mary St., 1203
Saint Mary St., 1204
Saint Mary St., 1213
Saint Mary St., 1305
Saint Peter St., 627
Saint Philip St., 972
Saint Thomas Project (2 folders)
Second St., 1136; Camp St., 2508
Second St., 1206
Second St., 1233
Second St., 1320
Second St., 1410 (Elkin-Derks House)
Second St., 1427

Box 13

Seventh St., 1324
Seventh St., 1406
Seventh St., 1506
Seventh St., 1524
Sixth St., 1537
Solomon Pl., 922
Soniat St., 1008
Square 154, 7th Ward
Square 277
State St., 1331
State St., 1912
State St., 1923
State St., 2027

Box 14

Tchoupitoulas St., 1127 (Lengsfield Packaging Co.)
Tchoupitoulas St., 1556
Tchoupitoulas St., 3157
Tchoupitoulas St., 5951
Third St., 1222
Third St., 1303
Third St., 1314
Third St., 1315
Third St., 1331
Third St., 1404
Third St., 1410
Third St., 1415
Third St., 1530
Toulouse St., 1012
Toulouse St., 508-513; 514-518 (Louis Lanoix property)
Toulouse St., 828
Toulouse St., 926
Transcriptions and Translations

Box 15

Valence St., 1636
Valence St., 1702
Versailles Blvd.
Walnut St., 333
Washington Ave., 1237
Washington Ave., 1308
Webster St., 1333
The 1795 Chimney-Tax of New Orleans - Winston De Ville (annotated)

Box 16

DeBuys-Mercier (notes)
Martinet, Louis Andre (Folders 1 & 2)
Rillieux, Norbert, et al.
Rilleux Ancestry - Computer disks (3 1/2 inch)
Rilleux Ancestry - Francois Cheval
Rilleux Ancestry - Interview with Estelle Cheval (July 5, 1995) - cassette tape Rilleux Ancestry - Leander Cheval & Aimee Vivant
Rilleux Ancestry - Louis Cheval, et al.
Rilleux Ancestry - Louison Cheval
Rilleux Ancestry - Lioteau Family
Rilleux Ancestry - Macarty Family
Rilleux Ancestry - Soulie Family
Rilleux Ancestry - Charles Vivant
Rilleux Ancestry - Various Family Lines (Folder 1)

Box 17

Rilleux Ancestry - Various Family Lines (Folders 2 & 3)
Sims, Frederick Family (sites of interest to the family, to be used during a family reunion)
VCS Square 22 (Includes report on 536 Dumaine St.)
VCS Square 33-34 (Includes report "The Quarterhouse Property: 1792-1828")
VCS Square 43-44, 45-56 (Includes reports "The MInton Home, 919 Orleans Street," "The Lynott Home, 927 St. Philip Street," "915 St. Philip Street," "The Boggs Home, 623 Bourbon Street," "831 Bourbon Street," and "The Faulkner House, 624 Pirate's Alley") VCS Square 48 (Includes report on 912 Royal St.)
VCS Square 72 (Includes report "The Boggs Home, 623 Bourbon Street")
VCS Square 75-76 (Includes report on 831 Bourbon St.)
VCS Square 79-80
VCS Square 84 (Includes report on 915 St. Philip St.)
VCS Square 85-86
VCS Square 87-88 (Includes report "The Minton House, 919 Orleans Street"
VCS Square 89-90
VCS Square 91-92
VCS Square 93
VCS Square 97-98
VCS Square 99
VCS Square 100
VCS Square 102 (Includes report on 1031 Orleans Street - formerly 107)
VCS Square 103-104
VCS Square 105-106
VCS Square 107-108

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8/5/2012 -- iw (rev. 2/3/2017)